"Europe's no fly zone? Rights, obligations, and liberalization in practice"

Abstract

Market competition has always been a central goal of European integration. The European Commission claims that its competition policy benefits the lives of European Union (FU) citizens. Yet the EU citizen is poorly equipped to engage EU institutions to promote these benefits. As a consumer or tax-payer, the citizen is denied standing to challenge suspect practices. Only as an entrepreneur is an EU citizen capable of mounting legal claims based on EU competition rules. This system decentralized private enforcement, limiting efforts to enforce "dormant" treaty provisions or to apply innovative European Court of Justice (ECJ) interpretation broadly. Because many economic sectors were originally "exempted" from the rigors of competition with the common market, the exclusion of individuals from legal arenas insulates enterprises and member states from a source of pressure for change, enabling them to reach compromises that privilege the interests of producers over consumers and tax-payers. This [paper] explores the intersection of law, politics, and society in the air transport market. Acting on the basis of promising ECJ case law in the 1970, the European Commission proved incapable of opening air transport to competition. A "consumer" legal challenge with the same goal was rejected by the ECJ. It was only the legal challenges of the European parliament, entrepreneurs, and major carriers that resulted in the ECJ pressing other EU organizations to take action.